About the general model that public chargers use for selling their product:
Look: You drive up to a gas station, you put money or a card in the pump, you put the spout in the hole, and you pump gas. You don't have to have an account at the gas station, or with Shell, or with ESSO, or with ... You pay money and you get the product.
So why should charging an EV be different?
Yes, the car and the "pump" need to communicate: What amperage/voltage/etc can the car accept? The car needs to say: Stop. And so on. And there is no universal agreement on the nature of the "spout" ... the charging connector.
But needing protocols between the car and the "pump" doesn't mean that I need to have an account with Tesla, ChargePoint, etc.
I want to pay my money and get the product.
So why do we have the model we have now? Well, I suggest it's really a business scheme. If I have to have an account with XYZ to use XYZ's chargers, then XYZ has a handle on me. They can advertise to me. And if I never got around to setting up my account with PDQ, but only have an account with XYZ, then XYZ gets more of my business, that might have gone to PDQ.
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And a recent experience (I sent this to Shell):
Sirs:
Yesterday I used one of your superchargers for the first time. It was a terrible experience.
I looked up a charging station nearby. Found a supercharger, went over. Oh, it's Shell. Never used a Shell Supercharger before.
Download the app.
Set up account. Including getting a six-digit code.
Enter my credit card number into the app, including another six-digit code.
All this on my cell phone in the hot sun, trying to stand in the shade so I could read the screen on my cell phone.
I'm pretty tach-savvy. Many others would have given up. And gone to some other vendor.
Contrast this with what I need to do to buy gas: I stick my credit card in the slot. Maybe type in a ZIP code. And that's it.
You want to sell your product? Make it simple.
Don't believe me? Try it. Have someone who has never interacted with a Shell supercharger before do what I did. Not a techie. Do it in the hot sun. Time it.
Look: You drive up to a gas station, you put money or a card in the pump, you put the spout in the hole, and you pump gas. You don't have to have an account at the gas station, or with Shell, or with ESSO, or with ... You pay money and you get the product.
So why should charging an EV be different?
Yes, the car and the "pump" need to communicate: What amperage/voltage/etc can the car accept? The car needs to say: Stop. And so on. And there is no universal agreement on the nature of the "spout" ... the charging connector.
But needing protocols between the car and the "pump" doesn't mean that I need to have an account with Tesla, ChargePoint, etc.
I want to pay my money and get the product.
So why do we have the model we have now? Well, I suggest it's really a business scheme. If I have to have an account with XYZ to use XYZ's chargers, then XYZ has a handle on me. They can advertise to me. And if I never got around to setting up my account with PDQ, but only have an account with XYZ, then XYZ gets more of my business, that might have gone to PDQ.
=====
And a recent experience (I sent this to Shell):
Sirs:
Yesterday I used one of your superchargers for the first time. It was a terrible experience.
I looked up a charging station nearby. Found a supercharger, went over. Oh, it's Shell. Never used a Shell Supercharger before.
Download the app.
Set up account. Including getting a six-digit code.
Enter my credit card number into the app, including another six-digit code.
All this on my cell phone in the hot sun, trying to stand in the shade so I could read the screen on my cell phone.
I'm pretty tach-savvy. Many others would have given up. And gone to some other vendor.
Contrast this with what I need to do to buy gas: I stick my credit card in the slot. Maybe type in a ZIP code. And that's it.
You want to sell your product? Make it simple.
Don't believe me? Try it. Have someone who has never interacted with a Shell supercharger before do what I did. Not a techie. Do it in the hot sun. Time it.